Professor Alan Winfield

Alan Winfield is professor of electronic engineering at the University of the West of England, Bristol. Alan co-founded the Bristol Robotics Laboratory and his current research is focussed on the engineering and scientific applications of Swarm Intelligence. His work on Swarm Robotics is concerned with algorithms, analysis and modelling for future real-world applications. At the same time Alan is deeply interested in Swarm Robotics as a working model for the study of emergence, self-organisation and culture.

For the past three years Alan has led public engagement project Walking with Robots, a project that has taken the UK's intelligent robotics research out of research labs and into public spaces, science centres, science festivals and schools. The project has either organised or participated in around 200 different events and activities around the UK, educating and entertaining young children and their families, encouraging teenage children to think about what impact robots might have in their lifetimes and engaging adults in serious debates about the ethical questions raised by intelligent robots in society.

Robotics is no longer a narrow engineering discipline. Modern robotics research is highly multi-disciplinary, drawing upon expertise as diverse as biochemistry, neuroscience, ethology, psychology, complexity science and philosophy. Nor are robotics issues of concern only to scientists and engineers. The predicted revolution in intelligent robotics will see robots become as ubiquitous in 25 years as personal computers are now. As Senior Media Fellow Alan will focus on intelligent robots in science and society. A theme that will explain and interpret the very rapid advances in intelligent robotics and, equally importantly, explore the wider ethical and societal implications of those advances.

More information:

Alan Winfield's website
Alan Winfield's blog
The Bristol Robotics Laboratory